


Memento

by yeaka



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, M/M, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 01:49:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11544921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: Dwalin really thought he could trust Nori now.





	Memento

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DisKingOfErebor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisKingOfErebor/gifts).



> A/N: Fill for diskingoferebor’s “7 [Betrayal] with nwalin” request on [my tumblr](http://yeaka.tumblr.com/) [from this list](http://yeaka.tumblr.com/post/163120603835/prompt-list-4).
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own The Hobbit or any of their contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

Dwalin’s entire body is cold, the torch in the hands of the guard before him doing little good. None of Erebor’s fire can do anything for him. The dungeons are warm, but Dwalin’s heart is steel. He isn’t so much hurt as he is _angry_ , and if he’d been given time alone after the news, he probably would’ve punched a hole right through his quarters. _Their_ quarters. Except that for the next long while, depending on the length of the trial and sentence, it’ll be just his again. 

And he doesn’t know if he’ll take Nori back afterwards. Not this time. 

By the time they finally reach the bottom of the twisting stairs, Dwalin’s hardened over. None of his fury seeps out between the cracks, perhaps save for just his eyes. He can feel his guards cowering away from him. He doesn’t stop to ask more information of them, doesn’t go to see the evidence—he knows what Nori is, and he knows how far Nori’s fallen since their grand return. He just never expected the fall to be quite _this_ far. He comes to the edge of Nori’s cell, and he still doesn’t know what to say.

Nori’s sitting, slumped over, on the wooden bench inside. His face is unusually despondent, his hair wilted, his clothes torn and dirtied from a struggle. When he glances over to see who’s approached the bars of his cage, it makes his black eye shine in the firelight. For one quick moment, Nori softens, and he rises from the bench as he whispers, “Dwalin...” 

But Dwalin hisses, “ _Nori_ ,” with venom, and all the hope goes out of Nori’s eyes.

There’s a moment of tense silence where Nori retreats back into himself—Dwalin’s seen it too many times not to know what’s going on. He knows Nori’s closed off now; there won’t be any point ‘questioning the prisoner.’ But that’s not why his guards fetched him right away. It was a courtesy to their captain, because their relationship’s been no secret, though it probably would’ve been better for Dwalin if it were—there’ve always been rumours about his poor choice in lover. They all know what Nori was. Remembering every last word he ever heard behind his back, Dwalin stonily says, “You betrayed me.”

Nori has the nerve to look aside, clutch his sleeve, and mutter, “This had nothing to do with you.”

“You _promised_ me,” Dwalin growls, and the closest guard steps back with the volume, but Nori’s flinch hurts him more, even after _this_. “You vowed that you were done with this life, that you’d never go back—”

“And I didn’t,” Nori snaps. His head jerks up, only to snarl, “But what’s the use in explaining? Clearly, you’ve made up your mind.” And he turns on his heel and huffs off, back to his withered bench, like _he’s_ the one being treated unfairly.

Dwalin could reach right through the bars and throttle him, if not for _loving him_ so much. That only makes it worse. Dwalin stares a minute longer, boring holes into Nori’s temple, while Nori looks bitterly away. Finally, Dwalin wrenches back. It’s getting difficult to breathe.

He storms away from the cell, right out and over into his office, where another guard is already waiting with the box of evidence. Dwalin barely acknowledges her, just grunts, “What did he steal?”

“This,” the guard answers, gesturing into the wooden container set on Dwalin’s parchment-laden desk. He’s already sorting through for the right form to lock Nori up for a couple of years before he glances properly at what’s inside. He already knows the sorts of things Nori used to take. Palm-sized metalwork, mostly, things that could be pawned and melted down, easy to hide. 

But Nori never stole _clothing_.

Dwalin freezes, turning properly to eye the evidence, as his guard drones on in his peripherals, “We caught him sneaking out of the royal scribes’ chambers, which, as you know, have been secured and guarded since Balin’s expedition team to Moria. He couldn’t possibly have _not_ known that _nothing_ in those rooms was to be removed, but he became irate—”

“Ori wouldn’t mind.”

The guard stops, clearly puzzled, and asks, “Sir?”

“Ori wouldn’t mind,” Dwalin numbly repeats. “If he’d known how long he’d be gone, and that we’d seal off his old chambers... he wouldn’t mind his brother having something to remember him by.” 

The guard says nothing, but there’s a tightness in her face at the word ‘brother’—perhaps she didn’t know. So many of the new dwarves in Erebor _don’t know_ about Thorin Oakenshield’s noble party that secured the mountain together, the core group tighter than anything, from the ones that rose through royal ranks to the ones that faded back into a civilian life not far from the streets. Maybe if Nori had visited Ori more before the expedition, the guards would’ve known him.

But then, if they’d known, Ori could’ve made them all knit scarves like the one Nori tried to take, so they could’ve all had something instead of just sealed-off quarters everyone’s too sad to touch. 

And suddenly all of Dwalin’s anger is gone, replaced with just a hollow sorrow and a nagging guilt. In a way, _he_ was the one to betray his partner. He should know Nori better.

He almost tells the guard to go let Nori out. But leaving it to someone else would just be cowardice, and Dwalin’s never taken the easy way just to spare himself some pain. He takes the folded scarf careful from the box, and the guard doesn’t question him. The ones outside won’t either. 

He brings it out to Nori, more sorry than he can say.


End file.
